R E G I O N A L   B R I E F S

PUNJAB

AMLOH
OFFICE-BEARERS: The following have been elected office-bearers of various circles of the Shiromani Youth Akali Dal (Amritsar): Circle Mulepur: president — Mr Harmeet Singh Bir Bhmarsi; senior vice-president — Mr Gurcharn Singh Rurki. Circle Khamano: president — Mr Gurpreet Singh. Circle Bassi Pathala (rural): president — Mr Sher Singh Nandpur; senior vice-president — Mr Sarbjeet Singh Loharikalan; Circle Fatehgarh Sahib (rural): president — Mr Harjeet Singh Kotla Bajwara; senior vice-president — Mr Gurmukh Singh Mandophal.

BHOG: The 23rd annual bhog of Shri Akhand Path, being organised by the staff of the Forest Department, will be held on Sunday at 9 am, according to employees and forest range officers in a press note here on Saturday. Sant Baba Nomo Nath Ji Maharaj (Chobdaran) and Baba Balwinder Singh Ji (Nanaksar) will recite kirtan. A community kitchen will be organised.

BATHINDA
BLOOD DONATION: Volunteers of the United Welfare Society on Saturday donated 11 units of blood at the local Civil Hospital.

INJURED: Two persons were injured in separate incidents in the district while two bodies were cremated by an NGO. A cyclist was injured when he was hit by a vehicle on the Bathinda-Muktsar road about 10 km from here on Friday night. He has been identified as Pokhar Ram. In another incident, another cyclist Makhan Singh was injured when he was hit by a car on Saturday.

KHANNA
TEACHER KILLED: A school teacher was crushed to death by a truck near Samrala Chowk on GT Road on Saturday. According to police, the teacher, Ms Surinder Kaur, was going on a moped when the truck knocked it down. She died on the spot. A case under Section 304-A, IPC, has been registered. The driver of the truck, Karmjit Singh, has been arrested and the truck impounded.

MEETING: A meeting of the Watson and Ashoka Steel Workers Union was held at Prem Bhandari Municipal Park under the chairmanship of Mr Faqir Singh, president of the union, on Saturday. More than 200 workers participated in the meeting. It was decided that an agitation would be started to press for the reinstatement of 400 dismissed workers. They would also submit a memorandum to the SDM on Friday. A seven-member committee has been constituted for the agitation that comprises Mr Faqir Singh, Mr Ajit Singh, Mr Kulwant Singh, Mr Amarjit Singh, Mr Sukhdev Singh, Mr Avtar Singh, Mr Hari Singh and Mr Ram Niwas.

MARTYRS’ DAY: The Naujawan Sabha, Bhagat Singh Colony, will celebrate the martyrdom day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh on March 23. It was decided at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Mr Rakesh Kumar, president of the sabha. A cultural programme will also be organised on the occasion.

LUDHIANA
DENTAL CAMP: Baba Jaswant Singh Dental Hospital organised a dental awareness and check-up camp for students of Darshan Academy here on Friday. The highlight of the camp was a poster-making contest on “Oral Dental Hygiene”, which was co-organised by B.J.S. Dental Hospital and Koreal Health Care, wherein students displayed their talent through colourful posters. A panel of judges comprising Dr Raman Kapur, Dr Harmandeep Bedi, Dr Jyotika Manju and Dr Amrit Mangat adjudged Gurpreet Kaur first, Pooja Bhardwaj second and Gurkala Singh third in the contest. Over 400 students and their parents availed themselves of the diagnostic/therapeutic facilities and expert consultation at the camp.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE: The 23rd annual conference of the northern chapter of the Association of Surgeons of India will be held from March 14 to 16 at Pal Auditorium, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU). Dr Satish Jain, Medical Director and Chief of Surgery and Surgical Oncology at M.D. Oswal Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation, who is the organising secretary of the conference, said it would be preceded by a preconference workshop on Thursday at the hospital. The conference will have one day CME on Friday. Mr R.C. Dogra, Health Minister, Government of Punjab, will be the chief guest, while Dr J.S. Gujral, V-C, Baba Farid University, and Dr K.S.Aulakh, V-C, PAU, will be the guests of honour.

HINDI WORKSHOP: The regional office of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) organised a two-day Hindi workshop at its Rahon Road branch. More than 40 officials from different branches all over the state took part. Mr Prem Singh Antal, Senior Regional Manager of the bank, while inaugurating the workshop, exhorted employees to carry out maximum day-to-day work in Hindi. The guest speaker and member-secretary of the City State Language Implementation Committee, Mr Pramod Sharma, awarded a merit certificate to the bank for meritorious performance during 2001-02.

AWARDED: Ms Mandeep Kaur Garcha of Mai Bhago College for Women, Ramgarh, secured first position in KK Grover and AC Bali Memorial Declamation Contest held at Punjab University, Chandigarh. The contest was held on Friday.

FELICITATED: The Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry is felicitating its president, Mr PD Sharma, for his outstanding contribution to the industry. Mr Sharma would be felicitated by the Secretary, Small Scale Industries, Government of India, Mr SK Tuteja at a function being organised on Sunday

FUNCTION: SDP College for Women will hold a function to celebrate the college getting ISO 9001-2000 Certification on Tuesday on the college campus. Mr Lal Singh, Minister of Finance, Planning, Food and Civil Supplies, Punjab, will hand over the certificate and preside over the function.

DECISION HAILED: The Engineering Export Promotion Council has hailed the implementation of the Kelkar Committee’s recommendations for the simplification of procedure of the duty drawback scheme. In a statement issued here on Saturday, the council chairman, Mr Satish Dhanda, said the decision to delegate the authority to various jurisdictional commissions of central excise for fixation of brand rate instead of centralising the drawback directorate with effect from April 1, 2003, would ease the process of fixation of brand rate to a very large extent

EYE CAMP: The Lions Club, Raikot, is organising a free eye check-up camp on Sunday at Dashmesh Public School. Dr Romesh, MD, will examine the patients. The club will provide free spectacles to needy patients.

OPIUM SEIZED: Mr Amarjit Singh, SHO, Dehlon police station, arrested Narinder Singh, alias Nindi, of the village during patrolling near Lehra village and seized 1 kg of opium from his possession. A case under Sections 18, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused

RALLY: Various organisations working for the welfare of ex-servicemen would hold a rally at Neelon Bridge on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh road on Sunday to focus on their problems as well as those of the state and Central Government pensioners. Among others, Brig H.S. Yadav, president, All India Ex-servicemen Action Committee, and Col H.S. Kahlon, chief coordinator, Atma Raksha Sangh, would address the rally. Giving the information, Col Kahlon said in a statement here on Saturday that there was widespread resentment among different sections of society over criminal wastage of public money and rampant corruption among political functionaries and public servants. The rally, he added, would also deliberate upon the criminalisation of politics and problems of serving soldiers, ex-servicemen and pensioners.

VULGAR POSTERS: The Republican Party of India (RPI) has urged the district administration to deal sternly with the menace of screening of dubbed porno films in some of the local cinema houses and pasting of obscene posters all around the city. In a memorandum submitted to the District Magistrate, the state president of the party said provocative posters and vulgar movies were having an adverse impact on the youth, particularly the school-going and college students.

BLOOD DONATION CAMP: Doctors and technicians from the Department of Transfusion Medicine, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital collected 75 units of blood during the 144th Voluntary Blood Donation camp organised by the Blood Donors Council, Rampura Phul, at the fire brigade office, Dr Manjit Kaur, Head of the Department of Transfusion Medicine said here on Saturday. Dr Bishwamohan, cardiologist, Hero DMC Heart Institute, provided assistance in organising the camp and Mr H.L. Bansal, Principal, Shaheed Smarak College, spoke on the occasion. The Milkmen Union, Punjab, also participated.

REPORT ON IRAQ: The Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) in a statement released on Saturday said the report presented by Mr Hans Blix, Chief UN Inspector on Iraq and Mr Mohd Elbaradei, Director-General of International Atomic Energy Association, to the Security Council, UNO, was encouraging therefore there was no need to attack Iraq. It appealed to the US Administration to utilise the opportunity to save the world from a catastrophe.

MANSA
SHOPS: All liquor shops will be closed on March 9 in the district as per an order issued by Mr S.K. Ahluwalia, District Magistrate, under Section 154 of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914. The order has been issued in view of the Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat elections to be held on that date.

CHALLANS: The Vigilance Bureau, Ferozepore, presented five challans against Mr Narata Ram Goyal, a former Chief Manager, Mr Ramji Lal, a former Deputy Manager, and Mr Jagroop Singh, branch manager of Mansa Central Cooperative Bank Limited, Mansa, along with 16 others under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of 1988, in the court of Special Judge, Mansa, Mr Jaspal Singh for advancing loans amounting to lakhs of rupees to 16 unemployed youths persons under the non-farming sector and misutilising them.

CASE: The city police has registered a case under Sections 302 and 34 of the IPC against Lakha Singh of Ward No 18, Mansa, for strangling to death his wife, Jasbir Kaur. According to an FIR registered on a complaint of Mr Jagsir Singh, brother of the deceased, a resident of Aspal Kalan in Sangrur district, the accused Lakha Singh was having illicit relations with another woman and Jasbir Kaur used to object to it. Enraged by it, Lakha Singh murdered her.

HARYANA

AMBALA
FLOWER SHOW: A Northern Railway inter-division flower show was held at Railway Stadium, Ambala Cantt, on Saturday. Six railway divisions of Northern Railway participated in the competition. The Delhi division, the Allahabad division and the Ambala division won first, second and third positions respectively. The Divisional Railway Manager, Ambala, Mr Keshav Chandra, presided over the show. Various games for children were also organised. 

CAMP BEGINS: The Manav Sewa Mandal and the Rotary Club of Ambala organised a polio surgery camp here on Saturday. The Additional Deputy Commissioner, Ms Neelam Kasni, inaugurated the camp held at Kumari Rukmani Devi Hall. 

DEMANDED: The Ambala Cantt Traders Federation Chairman, Dr N.C. Jain, on Saturday demanded that a police assistance post should be set up on the Jagadhari road. He said only the Ambala Cantt Civil Hospital had to take care of all accident cases on this stretch and there had been times when no vehicle could be found to carry accident victims to a hospital.

KALKA
CANARA BANK: A workshop was organised by the local branch of Canara Bank to celebrate International Women’s Day here on Saturday. Ms Joyati Ranga Rayya, wife of General Manager of the bank, was the chief guest. Around 55 participants from Kalka attended the workshop and took keen interest in various banking schemes. Ms Geeta Goel, the Manager of the bank, welcomed the guests.